Former President Donald Trump Photo: Todd Heisler/Pool via USA TODAY NETWORK via IMAGN
Former President Donald Trump says that, if he’s elected in November, “on day one,” he’ll roll back transgender student protections recently enacted by the administration of President Joe Biden.
“We’re gonna end it on day one,” Trump said Friday while speaking to the Philadelphia conservative talk radio show Kayal and Company, The Hill reported. “Don’t forget, that was done as an order from the president. That came down as an executive order. And we’re gonna change it — on day one it’s gonna be changed…. Tell your people not to worry about it. It’ll be signed on day one. It’ll be terminated.”
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Trump was referring to Biden’s 2021 executive order in which he wrote, “all students should be guaranteed an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex … including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Biden’s executive order directed his Department of Education (DOE) to review pre-existing federal sex discrimination laws in order to address protections for LGBTQ+ students and others.
The new rules require schools to allow students to use facilities, names, and pronouns matching their gender identities. The rules don’t address the issue of trans students playing school sports on teams matching their gender identity.
The new rules, which invalidate numerous anti-transgender policies developed under Trump, will go into effect on August 1, before the start of the upcoming school year.
Any schools that receive federal funding will be expected to follow the rules or risk federal lawsuits, a DOE investigation, and possible loss of funding. Nonetheless, many red states have promised to challenge the new rules in court.
The Trump administration spent four years fighting against the legal argument that laws that ban discrimination “based on sex” ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, particularly in schools. In 2017, then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued guidance to schools saying that Title IX did not protect LGBTQ+ students, shortly after she and Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked a guidance from the administration of former President Barack Obama that said the opposite.
Trump has many plans to attack trans rights if re-elected
“On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children,” Trump said in a speech earlier this year.
Trump has also promised to stop gender-affirming care for minors nationwide and prohibit any federal agency from “promot[ing] the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.” He promised that his DOE would impose “severe consequences” on educators who “suggest to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body.”
Trump said he would order the Justice Department to investigate pharmaceutical companies and hospitals to see whether they “deliberately covered up horrific long-term side effects of sex transitions in order to get rich,” NBC News reported. Contrary to Trump’s claims, almost 100% of patients who receive gender-affirming care don’t regret it, and gender-affirming care represents a very small part of all medical procedures.
Trump also pledged to deny Medicare and Medicaid access to any doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors. The two federal programs provide major sources of financial support for many doctors and hospitals.
“The left-wing gender insanity being pushed at our children is an act of child abuse. Very simple. Here’s my plan to stop the chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth,” Trump said. All major medical associations consider the care as safe, essential, and effective for the well-being of trans youth.
If re-elected, Trump is expected to follow Project 2025, a blueprint developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Project 2025 calls for Trump to reinstate his transgender military ban; end educational, workplace, and healthcare protections for transgender people; and instruct Congress to define gender as male and female and fixed at birth. The plan would end all acknowledgment of trans people and gender identity.
Trump has vowed to end all federal and government-funded diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) programs. This would end numerous organizational trainings and funding for any groups devoted to serving marginalized communities.
